On May 18 at 8:32 a.m., a sudden 5.1-magnitude earthquake
and eruption shook the earth and Washington
state’s Mount St. Helens erupted. It
ultimately took the lives of 57, spewing ash as far away as Minnesota . The equivalent of a 24-megaton
blast demolished a 230-square-mile area around the mountain. Millions of trees
were scorched and burned by the hot air alone. A massive mudslide developed from
the instantaneous destruction of the glacier atop the mountain. Twenty-seven
bodies were never found. Mount St. Helens went
from 9,600 feet high to only 8,300 feet high in a matter of seconds.
I remember first hearing this record on WPLR (New Haven – 99.1). Each
week the music director Gordon Weingarth would play cuts from LPs or singles
released the previous week. I remember hearing him say this was the band’s
first studio album since Peter Gabriel’s leaving as vocalist. I remember him
saying that this was a slightly different sound with the drummer, Phil Collins taking
over lead vocals. I had never heard of Genesis – let alone Phil Collins - at
that point but I did really like this song. Here I sit, some 1,200 miles and 44
years later recapping my first listen. It seems a bit unreal, but this is just
one example of why I am a music junkie: small bits of sonic stimulation
permanently written into my processor chip.
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